According to The Huffington Post newsite, American nuns have rejected Vatican plans to assume control of their leadership organisation, and have instead proposed a negotiated solution to their dispute with the Vatican over perceptions they are not sufficiently "orthodox".

According to the report, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which acts as the umbrella organisation for Catholic nuns and women in religious vocations in the United States, stated its "deep disappointment" with the Vatican's decision to appoint a group of bishops to take over and "reform" the LCWR, but also stated that the group wanted to remain in dialogue with the Vatican with a view to "creating more possibilities for the laity and, particularly for women, to have a voice in the church."

The nuns, however, have reiterated their undertaking to disband the LCWR and form a new organisation beyond the control of the Vatican if the Church leadership remains intransigent on the issue of "orthodoxy".

The full story can be found here.


 
According to The Huffington Post newsite, the Franciscan Action Network has strongly criticised US presidential candidate Mitt Romney for recent statements and advertisements on the issue of welfare policy.

The newsite cites a press release issued by FAN which states: "Our Christian tradition teaches that we are to treat the poor with dignity and to prioritize the poor in our policies as a society. At a time when millions are struggling financially, it is degrading to talk about the 'dependency' of people hurting in this economy, as Gov. Romney did recently."

The report cites FAN spokesperson Lonnie Ellis claiming that Romney's recent statements and advertisements are "worse than ignoring" poor people. "It's saying look, 'President Obama is actually supporting poor people too much, or he's just giving a free ride to poor people.  So it's actually using poor people in a really bad way."

The full story can be found here.